Thursday, June 07, 2007

The Good News From Afghanistan

A few items that caught me eye--stuff you definitely won't see in the MSM:

--So far this year, Taliban and drug gang related violence has left about 1,700 dead. It's less than last year, and lower than the average annual death toll in Afghanistan for the last three decades

--The Taliban continue to operate in groups of 40-50 gunmen, and continue to get detected and attacked from the air. The current Taliban tactic is to run for the nearest residential area had hide among the civilians. If the smart bombs catch you anyway, the Taliban will claim NATO is making war on Afghan civilians. The media loves this and gives it lots of attention. Despite all this, a majority of the Taliban combat groups coming into Afghanistan this year, have been found and attacked. This usually results in most of the 40-50 gunmen getting killed, wounded or captured. The captives report that the Taliban is having a harder time recruiting in Pakistan, and is relying more on younger, less experienced, religious school students

--In the last six years, 592 foreign troops have been killed fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Two-thirds of the dead have been American. British and Canadian troops made up about twenty percent. Spain and Germany each account for about three percent, and several other nations about six percent. The Taliban have lost nearly twenty times as many fighters in that time. {Remember: French and German units in Afghanistan are not allowed to fight}

--NATO has declared the Taliban Spring Offensive non-existent. The Taliban are introducing a new military leader (to replace the recently deceased Mullah Dadullah) across the border in Pakistan